Glennon’s wait is over, starting Tuesday

Mike Glennon will begin Spring Practice Tuesday afternoon as the first-team quarterback. It's been a long time coming for the redshirt sophomore from Virginia.

Mike Glennon will begin Spring Practice Tuesday afternoon as the first-team quarterback. It's been a long time coming for the redshirt sophomore from Virginia.

He’s got it all – exceptional height, above-average arm strength, solid decision-making abilities and a winner’s mentality. Mike Glennon had all that down when he came to NC State two years ago. Patience might not have been high on the list. It is now.

The highly-recruited, highly-decorated quarterback from Westfield High School in Chantilly, VA was supposed to be the next “it” quarterback at NC State. He was supposed to be Philip Rivers-like and start right away for a team searching for a leader. A leader did emerge during Glennon’s first year on campus, but it wasn’t him.

Fast forward two years, and Glennon is still waiting for his opportunity. Starting tomorrow, he’ll get it.

Because of Russell Wilson’s decision to focus on baseball this spring and the fact that there is not another scholarship quarterback listed on the roster, Glennon will get all the reps with the first team during the next month. Glennon said he’s excited for the chance to prove himself.

“Russell playing baseball right now gives me an opportunity so I just have to step up and make the most of it,” Glennon said. “I know what to expect mentally and physically going against our ones so it gives me the approach that I need to take. I need to be ready. The guys are looking at me as the starting quarterback right now, so I just have to take more of a leadership role and be ready to go.”

While spring practice doesn’t officially start until Tuesday afternoon, the team has been hard at work in the weight room since coming back for the spring semester the first week of January. For Glennon, the time leading up to spring practice has been a time to work and become more vocal with the rest of the team.

“People are getting after it. Everyone is working hard and getting ready for spring,” he said. “I’ve been out there throwing with receivers getting timing down, just getting back and running, lifting doing all those things and watching film breaking down our offense versus other defenses. I haven’t focused on one thing in general, basically one thing as a whole. I’ve just been working. “

While Glennon said the last couple of years have been tough simply because he wants to be on the field competing, he said he understands that not every great quarterback starts from day one. Glennon said the thought of transferring never crossed his mind. He said he’s used the two years of waiting and watching to learn, not only from Russell Wilson but from offensive coordinator Dana Bible as well.

“Obviously I would have liked to have played by now but I know what to expect and you just have to be patient,” he said. “Not many people play as a true freshman or even a redshirt freshman, and there have been plenty of guys go on to a successful career in the NFL who didn’t start right away. You don’t have to start right away to become a great quarterback, but obviously I would like to play. I’m a competitive guy.”

Glennon said he’s continued to progress as a quarterback despite only playing limited snaps in seven games last season. He attributes a lot of that progress to Bible, who Glennon called the ‘most respected’ coach on the staff.

“He has more respect from our players than any other coach. Everything he says has a reason behind it. He doesn’t just yell to yell,” he said. “He’s really made it much easier taking that step from high school to college, and he tells me he runs an NFL offense so really it’s from high school to the NFL. He’s great at what he does.”

As for what happens after spring practice heading into the fall and the 2010 season, it looks like Glennon will once again get to use the patience he’s developed the last two years. Wilson’s decision of whether or not to return to the football team will directly impact Glennon’s path with the Wolfpack. But even if Wilson does return, head coach Tom O’Brien has said time and again that the best players in practice will play in the games regardless of who started the year before or the week before.

“They always say that the best players going to play,” Glennon said. “They told me something similar with Matt Ryan happened. I think he didn’t start the beginning of his sophomore year, and the other guy got hurt. He stepped in and never looked back.”

It’s hard to know if 2010 will be the season when Glennon breaks out and never looks back, but Tuesday will be the first step to finding out.

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24 Responses to Glennon’s wait is over, starting Tuesday

  1. choppack1 03/08/2010 at 3:31 PM #

    I don’t know if I’d agree w/ the assessment that he was going to start right away. When RW was a true freshman, I think he did well enough so that the staff knew they had something special – and proceeded to move to a different offense…And when he did what he did in his first year season – it said all you needed to know about our QB position.

    That said, I hope that Glennon continues to improve and gets more reps this year. He showed some signs last year – but any time he played it was a less than ideal situation.

  2. WTNY 03/08/2010 at 4:05 PM #

    Thanks for the Glennon feature!

    On a related topic, anyone know how Coach Bible is doing?

  3. Derek Medlin 03/08/2010 at 4:09 PM #

    He should be nearing the end of his treatment cycle. Not sure though.

  4. Classof89 03/08/2010 at 4:16 PM #

    Its been so many years (ever?) since “the next big thing” at QB really turned out to be the “next big thing” that it is impossible for me to get excited about this kid until I actually see him throw for 400 yards+ against an ACC opponent. We all remember Marcus Stone. How about Jose Laureano? I’m sure there are several other highly recruited QB busts in our history.

  5. GAWolf 03/08/2010 at 4:21 PM #

    I really, really, really, hope Glennon is able to live up to his incoming expectations. If he’s just a majority fraction of the hype we (the NC State fans) placed on him then he’ll be a special player for us. He still has PLENTY of time to grow into his own, and it’s great to read that he understands that. Frustrations would definitely heed his progress.

    It seems like he’s got a great head on his shoulders. Assuming he’s lifting hard, I hope he’s putting some meat on his shoulders, too!

  6. GAWolf 03/08/2010 at 4:23 PM #

    Classof89: How about most every, single one during Amato’s tenure EXCEPT Russell Wilson. (P Riv was holdover from O’Cain.)

  7. Derek Medlin 03/08/2010 at 4:31 PM #

    I see your Jose Laureano and raise you Mike Greco…haha.

    Also, Glennon did say he had gained some weight. It was hard to tell, but he said he’s put on about 10 lbs.

  8. packalum44 03/08/2010 at 7:43 PM #

    Comparing Marcus Stone and Mike Grecco’s hype to Glennon is crazy. They were nowhere near the same QBs coming out of high school. NC State fans may have over-hyped them but no one else. Glennon was a top 5 QB and had offers from everywhere. A fringe 5 Star recruit.

    I get the cynicism but you haven’t seen him play if you compared him to those guys. With that said there’s plenty of top 5 flops but Glennon won’t be one.

  9. packsbiggestfan 03/08/2010 at 8:16 PM #

    Haha to the Marcus Stone comparison. I agree with packalum44, Glennon has already shown superior skills to that of Stone or any other of Amato’s ho hum QBs. He still has to prove himself to be consistent but the ability is there, hopefully he will translate that ability to on-the-field production.

    Thanks for the feature and give us an update on tomorrow’s practice por favor.

  10. OwenDorm83 03/08/2010 at 8:28 PM #

    didn’t work out for Marcus Stone at QB, but he is a great kid. I’d love to have more like him on the team.

  11. Derek Medlin 03/08/2010 at 8:30 PM #

    I’ll be out at practice around 430 and I’ll get some interviews after.

  12. cWOhLFrPAiCKs 03/08/2010 at 11:41 PM #

    OwenDorm83: Could not agree with you more. Having guys that are willing to do anything to help the team are always important and Stone was one of the best at that. I much preferred watching him catch a pass or throw a block over watching him throw the ball!

    From what we’ve seen so far from Glennon, I think he’ll be just fine. When he has his opportunity to shine, he will.

    GO PACK!

  13. Wolfy__79 03/08/2010 at 11:54 PM #

    I’m not worried at all about glennon. i think he’ll do well. but he’s lacking the game experience needed, he got put into some situations last year where he forced it a little bit… but of course we were down late and behind by a ton. … but he’s gonna do just fine.

  14. Classof89 03/09/2010 at 9:24 AM #

    Oh, and no discussion of Wolfpack “next great hopes” at QB turning out not so well is complete without a Percy Moorman reference.

    The young’ins on here can read a good discussion about promising Wolfpack QBs of the past who didn’t pan out on this thread:

    http://www.statefansnation.com/index.php/archives/2007/08/24/pack-land-big-ot-from-charlotte/

  15. Sam92 03/09/2010 at 9:38 AM #

    personally, i think this a great development for the team. RW is a good quarterback, but not a great quarterback, and the fact is, he hasn’t led the team to victory.

    Glennon has a better arm than RW, we’ll see how he compares in other areas with experience

    Glennon starting at QB is the first reason I’ve had to be excited about next season

  16. packsbiggestfan 03/09/2010 at 10:02 AM #

    Marcus Stone did give his all as well as valuable minutes at TE. I only meant the QB comparison.

    Russell Wilson did all he could to lead us to victory, we avg’d just over 30 pts per game. Our defense was extremely weak last year. Wilson has lead us to victory when we have won, with legs or arm or both. He doesnt play D so he can only do his best to make up for the points the D allows. Im not “calling out” the D, I hope they are much improved this year.

  17. packplantpath 03/09/2010 at 10:36 AM #

    Sam92,

    I think blaming Wilson for the losses is a bit off. Wilson is the only reason we won the games we did win. I think this could be a good thing since it gives coaches a chance to really break Glennon in, but from what I saw of Glennon last season during mop up time of the 2 cupcake games (the only ones I made it to last season)he has a very long way to go.

    And I swear, the 10 lbs he claims he gained must be from his neck getting longer because he still looks puny out there. He could end up far and away better than Wilson, but I wouldn’t hang my hat on it.

    BTW, calling out the D is warranted. They were bad, and I suspect will be bad this year.

  18. choppack1 03/09/2010 at 10:43 AM #

    “RW is a good quarterback, but not a great quarterback, and the fact is, he hasn’t led the team to victory.”

    Are you serious? Have you looked at his #s – they are incredible.

    Glennon may be the next Johnny Unitas, but he’d have a hard time matching RW’s TD to INT ratio.

  19. wufpup76 03/09/2010 at 12:12 PM #

    Thank you chop and packplant.

    “I think blaming Wilson for the losses is a bit off. Wilson is the only reason we won the games we did win. I think this could be a good thing since it gives coaches a chance to really break Glennon in, but from what I saw of Glennon last season during mop up time of the 2 cupcake games (the only ones I made it to last season)he has a very long way to go.”

    ^Ding ding.

  20. packalum44 03/09/2010 at 5:49 PM #

    QB wasn’t our problem last year. However, its nice to know that our backup has a higher ceiling than Russell. If the coaches get him to maximize that potential as they did Russell, he will be better. If not he won’t. Simple as that.

    Assuming Russell returns, which I think he will, I expect them to share alot more snaps this year. Glennon never got to show off his cannon, he’s got a great deep ball.

  21. Classof89 03/09/2010 at 8:07 PM #

    who’s the 2nd QB at spring practice? I saw where Proctor who was injured last year was moved to DB…

  22. Wolfy__79 03/10/2010 at 9:50 AM #

    ^ proctor was recruited for defense (athlete not qb)!

    i don’t think glennon’s maturity was on point last year. he forced the ball when he was in the late game situations. granted, they weren’t winnable games so i think he was going for big plays, but he made mistakes when he was out there.

    with russell returning, i still think/agree that glennon will get much more playing time.

    i credit russell for doing everything in his power to win games last year. in the wake & duke games, his immaturity was evident also forcing the ball in tough places. but he was just trying to win. the defense AND the special teams were just too much of a deficit last year. bad starting position + scheme problems created a nightmare for us. i’m not so sure that the kids just couldn’t make in season adjustments to what archer was going for, or if it was just a garbage scheme? i’m inclined to the garbage scheme right now. but regardless of all that, russell put it all out there for wins and the defense dug to big of a hole.. i think we all can agree there. special teams just helped the situation.

  23. packalum44 03/10/2010 at 1:48 PM #

    I’d rather have my eyes gouged with a melon scooper than watch the 2009 special teams. Jesus they were awful, Ruiz couldn’t start for most high schools.

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  1. Football Team Prepares For Spring Practice; Org Chart Released | Wolfpack Sports - 03/09/2010

    5IyAbt Great blog post.

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